Sherlock News: Moffat Confirms Third Season, BBC May Sue CBS Over Their Sherlock

If you’re not watching the BBC’s “Sherlock”, their modernization of the Arthur Conan Doyle “police consultant”, you are seriously missing out on some good stuff. The writing on this show is just downright brilliant, even if they tend to fart out a bad second episode each season. Thankfully, even the worst episode of “Sherlock” is still better than 90% of the dreck out there on TV land nowadays.

Season 2 of “Sherlock” has brought us a dominatrix Irene Adler, the hounds of Baskerville, and a fatal duel with Sherlock’s greatest arch nemesis, Moriarty. So what’s next for Holmes and Sherlock? Season 3, of course. Showrunner Steven Moffat has already confirmed this. The producer/writer also dropped some ideas for future “Sherlock” storylines:

I fondly imagine it’d be nice to stop it for a while and come back and see what they’re like in their 40s or 50s. Because normally these two characters are portrayed in their 50s. So we’re actually at the beginning. It might be interesting in a couple of decades when they come back and [we] see what they’re like.

We all know that John Watson is a bit of a horn dog on the show, so might that lead to matrimony for the Afghan war vet? Moffat seems to think so, and said nuptials may end Holmes and Watson’s living arrangements:

He and Holmes don’t always live together and I think that’s become a lazy way of doing Sherlock Holmes – they always live together. They didn’t actually and why would they? Nobody flat-shares forever, so there’s loads of details we can get in there.

Meanwhile, remember the news that CBS was looking to do their own version of a modern Sherlock Holmes set in modern New York? It’ll apparently be called “Elementary”, and the BBC is having none of it. Can you say, “Potential lawsuit?”

Sue Vertue, Sherlock Executive Producer at Hartswood Films, said: “We understand that CBS are doing their own version of an updated Sherlock Holmes. It’s interesting, as they approached us a while back about remaking our show. At the time, they made great assurances about their integrity, so we have to assume that their modernised Sherlock Holmes doesn’t resemble ours in any way, as that would be extremely worrying.” She added: “We are very proud of our show and like any proud parent, will protect the interest and wellbeing of our offspring.”

Apparently while you can’t actually copyright Sherlock Holmes in the modern era, you can get as close to copyrighting Holmes’ use of cellphones, computers, and text messaging, three things that figure very prominently into the BBC’s “Sherlock”. I honestly don’t know how you could even claim rights to THAT. I mean, if you’re going to “modernize” something, you have to include the “modern” environment, which, in this case, would include cellphones, computers, and text messaging.

In any case, I really don’t expect CBS to let this deter them one bit. The idea of an American Sherlock Holmes is interesting, and while the BBC’s “Sherlock” is a bona fide cult hit on American soil, it’s still, well, just a cult show here. Frankly, I kinda like the idea of having two Sherlock Holmes TV show, especially since the Brits seem to take forever to do theirs, and all we get are three episodes (albeit 90-minutes each) every year.